more knitting

a friend of mine is having a baby, so i thought it would be fun to knit a baby blanket. i'm kind of scarf-ed out for now, you see. although a baby blanket is kind of like a big, wide scarf, now that i think about it. anyhoo, here is the finished product:



and here is some detail:



for all of you knitters out there, here's the specs. it's a seed stitch border with seed stitch "spacer rows" (for lack of a better word) and stockinette stitch squares in between. it's nice because it looks like patchwork, but it's not separate squares (after two granny square afghans, i vowed never again would i stitch another blanket together). the pattern called for merino wool, but i used a 50/50 merino-cotton blend so it would be nice and soft. i thought i had my gauge correct, but it turned out a little bigger than the 21 x 24 inches; mine's more like 25 x 27 inches, or so. it could have something to do with the cotton blend. i knit it on size 3 circular needles.

this project became quite an obsession, as i started a little late and bit off a little more than i could chew. i was knitting for about two solid weeks from when i got home at night until i went to bed and at every spare moment in between: at lunch, on the bus, during half-time at the basketball games! there are a bunch of mistakes, but i don't think the baby will notice and hopefully it makes the gift that much more "charming."